The Judicial System Continues to Fall Apart
As usual, even though only a week has gone by, there is much to report. There is the issue of the draft law (which is the subject of a separate article), and recent political events deserve some attention as well. Are we on the brink of a new election? And what is the expected outcome of an election if it would happen now? This is another subject that deserves to be treated at length in a separate article, especially in light of the many new players on the political field.
It would also probably be appropriate for me to write about the ceasefire with Hamas, which seems to be collapsing, and about our fears for the fate of the hostages whose bodies remain in their hands. Netanyahu has already announced that the ceasefire is over—with Hamas alternately confirming and denying it—and has ordered the IDF to return to fighting.
On Monday, the headlines in Israel focused on another major development: the elimination of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, the second-in-command of the Hezbollah terror organization and leader of its military division. In an operation labeled Black Friday, the IDF carried out a targeted strike on an apartment in Lebanon where the terrorist was located with several other high-ranking Hezbollah figures, all of whom were killed. Netanyahu explained that the move was intended to prevent the resurrection of Hezbollah, which was almost completely crushed after the elimination of Nasrallah. Tabatabai has recently been working on rehabilitating Hezbollah’s terror network.
Another topic that I should address is Netanyahu’s trial. Every day has brought new sensational developments; as former police investigator Tzachi Chavkin testifies in court, a steady stream of details has been coming to light about shocking misconduct on the part of the police. The police investigated things that were not only unnecessary but that they had been barred from investigating. They also filed an indictment against Netanyahu based on an alleged meeting that took place between the prime minister and Shlomo Filber, then the director-general of the Ministry of Communications, even though it was clear from the tracking information collected from Filber’s cell phone that the meeting did not take place when they claimed, which was a key element of the case against the prime minister.
This Sunday, another bombshell broke when Chavkin revealed that the police had used extreme measures against Shaul Elovitch (the CEO of Walla and Bezeq) and his wife. “Suspects who are not expected to flee are generally not handcuffed while they are questioned, but the Elovitches were shackled in the interrogation room,” he revealed. This was one of multiple measures taken to induce the couple to sign on as state witnesses that required them to testify against Netanyahu. The couple’s son, Ohr Elovitch, was also brought to the interrogation chamber to pressure them into signing the agreement; Chavkin revealed that this was highly unusual and technically required advance approval, which was never requested and also never received. In another unusual step, the police recorded the conversation between the son and his parents in a room that is typically used for suspects to meet with their attorneys and that is supposed to be clear of any eavesdropping equipment. “I have never seen anything of the sort in any other investigation,” the police official admitted.
Meanwhile, the police force is struggling with its own set of woes. Deputy Commissioner Manny Binyomin, head of Lahav 433, has been put on leave, and allegations have surfaced of misconduct on the part of deputy commissioner Boaz Ballat. Both men have something to do with Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir; one is a close associate and the other is the opposite. And the investigation into the military advocate general is continuing to encounter snags. First, a panel of “conservative” judges on the Supreme Court ruled that Justice Minister Yariv Levin has the authority to appoint an external official to oversee the investigation—rejecting the position of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara—but they rejected his initial choice, Justice Asher Kula. Levin quickly found another candidate for the job, a judge named Yosef Ben-Chamu, but Chief Justice Yitzchok Amit, who is anything but conservative, issued an order freezing the appointment. As the days tick by with no progress, the investigation is falling apart, and some believe that that is exactly what the court intended. The MAG is protecting the attorney general, the attorney general is protecting the chief justice, and the justices are protecting them in turn; in short, one hand washes another.
There are other topics to discuss as well, such as the earthquake in Tzefas, which led Mayor Yossi Kakun to appeal to the prime minister for aid, as well as the controversy surrounding Defense Minister Katz’s decision to close the Galei Tzahal radio station, and the rainstorm last week that caused flooding throughout the country. But with all due respect to all these important topics, I think our first order of business this week should be to cover an entirely different story: the vandalism of a shul in Kadima-Tzoren.
Horrific Desecration
You have probably never heard of the settlement of Kadima-Tzoren. If that is true, you are not alone; most of the residents of Israel have likewise never heard of it. It is actually a combination of two settlements, Kadima and Tzoren, which were so small that they were united under a single local government. And even both communities together did not qualify to be considered a city; instead, they combined to form a “regional council,” with slightly more than 20,000 residents. All in all, it is a fairly obscure place. Kadima-Tzoren is located near Netanya, which made its way into the headlines this week due to the death of its longtime mayor, Miriam Feirberg. (The mayor, who served in her position for thirty years, was strongly supportive of the chareidi community in the city.) But Kadima-Tzoren featured in the headlines this week for a very different reason: the brutal desecration of Mishkan Shalom, the shul that serves the Yemenite community in the settlement.
On Shabbos morning, the mispallelim who showed up at the shul were shocked by the images of destruction that appeared before them. Hundreds of siddurim and chumashim had been ripped up and thrown on the floor, and benches and tables had been smashed. Worst of all, the sifrei Torah had been thrown on the floor in disgrace. Rav Chai Ratzabi, one of the shul’s mispallelim, declared in a pained voice, “Our eyes have been darkened. These sights are horrific and unbearable. We have been in this place for seven or eight years, and we have never experienced such devastation. This was no ordinary act of vandalism; this was someone acting out of hatred. I am trying to think of what might have caused this madness, but I cannot imagine who could possibly have been capable of doing this.”
Another mispallel told a reporter, “We are in shock. This was a veritable terror attack. When I arrived at the shul, I nearly fainted upon seeing this. We have no idea who did this or why. It is hard to believe.”
On motzoei Shabbos, a complaint was filed with the police, who replied that they were opening an accelerated investigation and that “all avenues of investigation will be examined.” The director-general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Yehuda Avidan, said, “No one can accept such a despicable act in the Jewish state. This act crossed a moral and ethical red line.” The chief rabbis, Rav Dovid Yosef and Rav Kalman Meir Ber, posted a statement: “The sight of sifrei Torah and holy seforim lying in disgrace on the floor of a shul is a heartrending image and a blow to the heart of the Jewish people. This is an incomparable act of desecration, which crosses every imaginable red line. This horrific incident is a reminder of dark days that we thought would never recur in the State of Israel.”
The incident comes on the heels of two similar episodes that occurred very recently in shuls in Haifa. Such a crime is especially horrific if the perpetrator is Jewish, as it would be a tragic illustration of the fallout of the incitement against the chareidi community. The vandalism was deemed a hate crime, since nothing was stolen; the motive was sheer hatred. Of course, the perpetrator may have been a non-Jew; after all, there are a million Gentiles in Israel who are considered Jewish only by secular law. It is also possible that the perpetrator was a religious Jew who is mentally unbalanced, as was the case with the arsonist who set fire to Rav Yitzchok Yosef’s shul. Whatever the case may be, it is horrifying.
Chief Rabbis Decry Supreme Court Involvement
Now that I have mentioned the chief rabbis, here is another news item concerning them from this past week. The Chief Rabbinical Council expressed its objections to external parties meddling in halachic determination. Rav Dovid Yosef, the Rishon Letzion and nosi of the Bais Din Hagadol, and Rav Kalman Meir Ber, president of the Chief Rabbinical Council, convened the council’s members and warned about the threat to the autonomy and authority of rabbonim. This was a highly unusual step, and their protest was directed against the judges of the Supreme Court.
This move was prompted by three successive Supreme Court rulings. First, the judges decided that the kashrus reform initiative launched during the Bennett-Lapid government by the previous minister of religious affairs, Matan Kahana, should be advanced. The reform includes a provision granting the Tzohar organization authority to issue kashrus certification. In this case, the judges’ ruling will not be implemented, since the Ministry of Religious Affairs has already canceled the reform altogether and replaced it with a different initiative. Nevertheless, the fact that the ruling has no practical impact does not detract from the gravity of the Supreme Court’s intervention in halachic matters. The second ruling was issued by Chief Justice Yitzchok Amit and stipulated that the Rabbinate’s exams on all subjects should be open to women. Amit denounced the Chief Rabbinical Council’s decisions on the subject as an attempt to evade the court’s previous ruling on this issue, which was similar to his current verdict. In the third case, the Supreme Court issued a ruling concerning child support payments that was clearly intended to weaken the standing of the botei din while increasing the power of the secular courts.
The Chief Rabbinate announced in its statement, “The chief rabbis of Israel and the Chief Rabbinical Council convened today for an emergency conference in response to recent Supreme Court rulings that impact the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. During the meeting, the participants voiced sharp objections to the intervention of the Supreme Court in matters that the Chief Rabbinical Council considers halachic in nature, which are under its purview according to the law. The chief rabbis decry the Supreme Court’s involvement in matters with halachic ramifications and emphasize that all questions pertaining to halacha, rabbinic ordination, and the spiritual leadership of the people of Israel are to be determined by the Chief Rabbinical Council, operating under the authority invested in it by the law.”
Chief of Staff Disciplines High-Ranking Officials
It has been over two years since Hamas attacked Israel and the chief of staff of the IDF, Major General Eyal Zamir, has made a series of “command decisions” regarding several senior IDF officers who, as members of the command echelon, were responsible for the events and failures that came to light. These are a number of personal measures taken against senior officials who were determined to have varying degrees of responsibility. The measures taken against them ranged from outright dismissal to a rebuke and halting a promotion. The officers in question held command positions before or during the Hamas onslaught. The decisions followed the recommendations of the Turjeman Commission, which investigated the intelligence failures and lack of preparedness in the defense establishment leading up to the October 7 massacre. I have written in the past about Major General Sammy Turjeman, an officer in the reserves who has conducted genuine inquiries into those events (unlike the inquiries within the IDF, which tend to cover up for the guilty parties).
The officers summoned for meetings with the chief of staff include Major General Shlomi Binder, head of military intelligence; Major General Tomer Bar, commander of the air force; Major General David Salama, commander of the navy; and Major General Yaron Finkelman, who headed the Operations Division at the time of the Hamas attack and later became the head of the Southern Command during the war. A number of former officers who resigned during the war were also called in to meet with the chief of staff: Major General Oded Basyuk, former head of the Operations Directorate; Major General Aharon Chaliva, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, who was asleep in a hotel in Eilat on the night of the attack and realized on his own that he should resign; and Avi Rosenfeld, commander of the Gaza Division of the IDF. The latter, who holds the rank of brigadier general, already admitted to his mistakes and left the army.
Not all of the officers showed up for their meetings; some, such as Chaliva, chose to avoid the embarrassment. According to leaked reports, Binder received a “command reprimand” and will be required to step down from his position. Tomer Bar and David Salama were rebuked, Oded Basyuk was dismissed from the reserves, and Yaron Finkelman will bear command responsibility and will be discharged from reserve service as well. Officers Yossi Sariel, Avi Rosenfeld, Ariel Luvovsky, and Chaim Cohen will be discharged from reserve service and will no longer continue serving. After the chief of staff announced his decision, he was soon accused of shielding his friends from discipline. In any event, ending their reserve service isn’t considered a serious punishment, since these officers have already retired.
The October 7 massacre, in which hundreds of people were slaughtered or taken captive, left Israeli society deeply traumatized. The country has yet to recover from the profound trauma, and some believe that the psychological impact on tens of thousands of Israelis hasn’t yet been fully discovered. But in addition to the country, the defense establishment was left shaken as well. Difficult questions have been raised about the preparedness of the army and the command echelon and about the judgment of its senior officials. The chief of staff’s disciplinary decisions are expected to send a clear message regarding the importance of personal and systemic responsibility in emergency situations. The defense establishment predicted that the decisions would evoke public reactions and trigger broader discussion about the manner in which such events should be managed and the responsibility of the command echelon. At the same time, the IDF emphasized that the main objective is to restore the public trust in the defense establishment and to ensure that they will be more prepared for future challenges.
PMO Takes on Violence Against Arabs
If anyone needed evidence that the identity of the person heading a system makes an enormous difference— whether it is the Supreme Court, the civilian or military prosecution, the Mossad, or the Shin Bet—the appointment of David Zini as director of the Shin Bet should prove it conclusively. There was good reason that all of Netanyahu’s enemies banded together to try to block his appointment. It is believed that the affair concerning the military advocate general—that is, the exposure of her role in leaking the Sde Teiman video and her subsequent lies to the defense minister, the chief of staff, and then the court—which began with a polygraph test in the Shin Bet, would not have exploded without Zini’s involvement. As the current head of the Shin Bet, Zini chose to transfer the information to the chief of staff as soon as it came to light, and he passed it on to the attorney general, who has since been barred from dealing with the matter. Someone else, they believe, would have buried the case altogether.
Here is another example: For years, the Shin Bet has officially announced that it opposes the death penalty for terrorists, on the grounds that such a measure will not prevent future terror attacks. But in recent discussions over the bill advanced by Ben-Gvir and his allies in the Knesset, when the Shin Bet was asked for its position, the intelligence agency reversed its longtime stance and came out in favor of the use of the death penalty, on the grounds that it will reduce terrorism.
This isn’t to say that David Zini is incapable of expressing a stance that infuriates the right. Last Thursday, a meeting took place in the prime minister’s office to discuss the mounting “wave of nationalistic crime,” as they referred to it, in Yehuda and the Shomron. This was their term for the alleged harassment of Palestinians in those areas by right-wing Israeli youths. Of course, no one would suggest that the allegations are untrue or that the violence is acceptable, but one must remember that it comes against the backdrop of daily terror attacks taking place in the area, along with a constant wave of widespread harassment of Jews by Palestinians. It is clear that when a Jewish youth sets fire to a Palestinian home, it is a very serious offense, not to mention the damage that it inflicts on Israel’s relationships with other nations, including President Trump and his staff.
The meeting in the prime minister’s office was attended by David Zini, the head of the Shin Bet; Avi Bluth, the head of the Central Command, who is extremely disliked by the settlers; and a number of government ministers, high-ranking officials in the Central Command, and representatives of the Welfare and Education Ministries. The discussion focused on coming up with educational and enforcement-based solutions for dealing with “extremist youth groups,” a phrase that has recently gained popularity. At the beginning of the meeting, the Shin Bet chief and the general presented updated statistics on the phenomenon. Over half a million Israelis live in Yehuda and the Shomron, among whom there are about 1000 youths who have dropped out of the school system. Out of that group, about 800 work on farms and are under constant monitoring and being handled by the project coordinator. Only about 300 of those youths are involved in violent incidents, and about 70 out of those 300 have been identified as the actual agitators. And many of them are not even youths; they are adults who incite young boys to violence. The remaining 230 have been identified as followers rather than instigators. The officials also reported that some of the individuals involved in the violence do not live in Yehuda and Shomron; they are outsiders who arrive from other areas in the country to participate in the “action.”
The participants in the meeting stressed that the uptick in violence among some of the youths stems from a combination of factors: the fact that they were cut off from educational frameworks during the war; the absence of the usual educational and social welfare figures, who were serving in the reserves; and a general increase in anxiety among youths in Israel and in general and in the region of Yehuda and Shomron in particular, where the proximity of Palestinian villages heightened the fears of a recurrence of the October 7 attacks. Zini conveyed the Shin Bet’s position; while he asked for understanding for the youths’ emotional state, he also insisted that strong action must be taken against the perpetrators of violence. This may not have pleased everyone on the right.
“I Am a Jew and Only a Jew!”
At the same time, the “other” David Zini, with his distinctly right-wing views, was revealed at that meeting as well. In the middle of the discussion, the participants were informed about another incident that had taken place during those very moments, as dozens of Jewish youths stormed into the Arab village of Huwara, setting fires and beating residents. For the commander of the Central Command, the timing couldn’t have been better. “The handwriting is on the wall,” he declared to the other participants. “Normative people live on the farms, but the outposts are occupied by rioters and extremists.”
Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was infuriated by the stereotype. “There are good people in the outposts as well,” he said. “It is unacceptable to evict the residents of an Israeli outpost while allowing Arabs who have likewise built illegally in the area to remain there.”
All eyes turned to Zini at that point, as everyone waited for his reaction. He chose to respond to one of the participants, who had accused the Israeli youths of “terror.” Zini said, “If taking over an area is considered terror, then the takeover in the Negev is also terror.”
When Zini was first nominated to take the position of Shin Bet director, some of his opponents attempted to block the appointment on the grounds that he holds “messianic” views. Thie claim was made by three former heads of the Shin Bet in a petition to the Supreme Court. The court has yet to issue an official ruling, but as the days pass, it is growing increasingly clear that the court will not retroactively disqualify Zini for a position that he has already occupied for two months. Nevertheless, the judges asked the state for its response to the petitions, and the attorney general wrote, without much enthusiasm, that there was no deficiency in the appointment. Zini added his own reaction, denying the claims against him and denouncing the petitions as an effort to police his thinking.
But you may be more interested in the next part of this statement: “I am not a Zionist or a nationalist,” Zini wrote. “I am a Jew, and only a Jew. My Jewishness is rooted in the history of the Jewish nation, in its heritage and the source of its thinking. Avrohom Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, Hoshea, Micha, Yeshayahu, Yirmiyohu, Hillel, Rabi Akiva, and Rabbi Yehuda Halevi were not nationalists or Zionists; those terms were foreign to them. To me, the concept of being Jewish says it all. It connects me to all the previous generations and all the generations that have yet to come.”
Zini added that this outlook was denounced by his opponents as “messianic,” a label that they view as a “badge of shame” and attempt to affix to anyone who dares to take pride in being Jewish or anyone whose starting assumption is that he must remain faithful to Judaism. He called on the judges to consider only his actions, not his thoughts or Jewish views, and added, “Over the 33 years that I have served in the IDF and the Shin Bet, no one has ever accused me of professional, personal, or moral failings, and I have never been suspected of having a conflict of interest.” During his candidacy, the Grunis Commission concluded that despite the claims leveled against him, no fault could be found with Zini’s character. As I noted, I believe that the petitions against him—which are malicious and biased—will be dismissed.
The Measles Outbreak
The measles virus is another issue of great concern in Eretz Yisroel. On Sunday, an unvaccinated child died of measles at Poriya Hospital in Teveria, at the age of about a year and a half. The doctors reported that he was in critical condition by the time he arrived at the hospital. This was the tenth measles death to occur since the outbreak began. Most of the victims have been children who were completely healthy and had no background illnesses but were not vaccinated against measles. The Ministry of Health stressed the importance of seeking medical treatment as soon as symptoms first appear, or as soon as there is a concern of contagion, since timely intervention may be lifesaving. A month ago, Israeli poskim released a public call for children to be inoculated against measles. The rabbonim made this announcement in response to a request from Israeli medical askonim led by Rabbi Elimelech Firer, Rabbi Binyomin Fisher, and Rabbi Shimon Rogoway, who likewise put out their own call to the public for the same purpose.
The Health Ministry and the rabbonim announced that all children are recommended to receive vaccinations on the standard schedule, at the ages of one year and six years, especially in areas known to be experiencing an outbreak. As of now, measles outbreaks are known to be taking place in Yerushalayim, Beit Shemesh, Bnei Brak, Charish, Modiin Illit, Nof Hagalil, Kiryat Gat, Ashdod, Tzefas, Netivot, Haifa, Teveria, the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, and the settlement of Tekoa. Unfortunately, most of these cities are home to chareidi communities.
The Ministry of Health is able to use cell phone tracking data to determine the locations that have been visited by patients diagnosed with measles and to alert anyone who was present in those locations to seek medical testing. On Thursday, for instance, the media reported that several patients subsequently diagnosed with measles had taken an El Al flight from Kishinev to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, which took off at 12:30 p.m. and landed in Israel at 3:00. The ministry asked the other passengers on the flight to confirm that they were properly vaccinated. Earlier on that day, it was also reported that a measles patient had shopped at the Shefa Bircas Hashem supermarket on Rechov Kahaneman in Bnei Brak. And there were reports of a measles patient who attended a simcha at the Keser Harimon hall in Bnei Brak.
The Passing of Rav Eliyohu Raful
I would like to dedicate the end of my column this week to a tribute to Rav Eliyohu Raful, who passed away last week. I knew Rav Eliyohu since my childhood; he was the founder of the Neve Eretz mesivta for Sephardic youths in Beer Yaakov. The yeshiva was housed in the buildings previously used by the Beer Yaakov seminary, which was founded by my father and built with significant assistance from the late Zev Wolfson. My father was passionately dedicated to increasing Torah in Beer Yaakov, and he arranged for ownership of the seminary complex to be transferred to his good friend, Rav Eliyohu Raful, while a similar complex was built for seminary students not far away, once again with funding provided by Zev Wolfson. Along with the mesivta, Rav Eliyohu also founded a yeshiva by the same name, in close proximity to Yeshivas Sheeris Yosef. The menahel of the mesivta was Rav Tzvi Tausky, my father-in-law, who passed away two years ago; at that time, Rav Eliyohu eulogized him. Shortly thereafter, I visited Rav Eliyohu in his home to record his recollections about my father-in-law and his experiences in general, and the conversation was deeply moving.
The two Neve Eretz institutions, the mesivta and the yeshiva, can be credited for the existence and accomplishments of thousands of Sephardic bnei Torah. I remember the recruiters who toiled to persuade thousands of parents to give their children a Torah education at a time when such a decision could not be taken for granted. I also remember Rav Amram Ivgi, who spent decades serving as the av bayis in the mesivta before moving on to become the deputy mayor of Bnei Brak and then the head of the religious council in Lod. (I once interviewed him for this newspaper.)
There is much that could be written about Rav Eliyohu Raful. He accomplished more in his lifetime than a large number of other people could have done collectively. For instance, there was his role in the Vaadah Lemaan HaShabbos (Committee for the Sake of Shabbos). The driving force behind that committee was Rav Tzvi Glassner, and its office was located in the Neve Eretz administrative office on Rechov Dessler in Bnei Brak. When I began working for the Shas party, we worked closely with the committee. At that time, a major battle was being fought against the practice of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare to grant indiscriminate permits to factories to operate on Shabbos. We battled a high-ranking official in the ministry, and we tried to convince then-Minister Moshe Katzav to stop supporting the official. Rav Eliyohu’s committee essentially served as the long arm of gedolei Yisroel to protect the observance of Shabbos in Eretz Yisroel.
Handing Out Rav Moshe Reichman’s Donations
Rav Raful also founded Yeshivas Knesses Shalom in Bnei Brak and was a partner in the founding of the Ohr Hachaim seminary. He was also the driving force behind the establishment of the Sephardic municipal list in Bnei Brak, with the encouragement of Rav Shach and the leading Sephardic rabbonim in the city, chief among them Rav Shimon Baadani. The outstanding success of the Sephardic list in Bnei Brak (as well as in Teveria and Yerushalayim) prompted the establishment of the national Shas party by Rav Ovadiah Yosef and his right-hand man at the time, Aryeh Deri. Rav Eliyohu was also involved in other important communal matters, and I have no doubt that much will be written about his activities in the future. For instance, when Moshe Reichman, the renowned philanthropist, decided to donate enormous sums to yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel—an initiative similar to today’s Keren HaTorah—and to subsidize apartments on the periphery for yungeleit as an incentive for them to reside there, Rav Eliyohu Raful was tapped to implement his plan. (The work of distributing the funds and reviewing the data fell to my father-in-law, Rav Tausky.) I believe that Rav Raful was recommended to Rav Reichman for this task by my father, who was a close friend of Moshe Reichman after serving as his maggid shiur in Yeshivas Beer Yaakov. Thus, Rav Eliyohu Raful played a major role in promoting the spiritual development of Eretz Yisroel’s chareidi community as a whole and its Sephardic community in particular.
While the newspapers in Israel featured beautiful tributes to Rav Raful, I noticed that any mention of the Committee for the Sake of Shabbos was conspicuously absent from the articles. At the shiva, I asked a family member why it had been omitted. “That wasn’t the only thing they left out,” he replied, and he proceeded to enumerate several other topics.
Another subject that was mentioned obliquely was a story from the early years of the state. Three years after the State of Israel was founded, an “underground alliance of zealots” was formed, which mainly took action to prevent Shabbos desecration and the marketing of treif meat. The Shin Bet, under the leadership of Isser Harel (whom we all remember from the Yossele Schumacher affair) and under orders from Ben-Gurion, monitored the group’s activities closely, and when they plotted to throw a fake grenade into the old Knesset building, they were arrested with great fanfare. They were later imprisoned and tormented, which led to the formation of an investigative committee. When four young men were brought to court for an extension of their remand, the newspaper Davar, which was affiliated with the Mapai movement, reported, “The defendants—Yehuda Rieder, Mordechai Ben-Eliyahu [later Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, the Rishon Letzion], Eliyohu Raful, and Noach Wormser, aged 25 through 29, were wearing yarmulkes on their heads and held paper and pencils in their hands. From time to time, they whispered to their attorneys….” The group’s daring exploits ultimately led to significant accomplishments for the religious community. The underground movement demonstrated that the religious community felt oppressed by the government’s disregard for religious persecution, such as in the battle surrounding IDF conscription for women. Rav Shlomo Lorintz, another prominent player in the underground movement, claimed that they had received backing for their activities from gedolei Yisroel, with the exception of the Chazon Ish. In any event, Yated Neeman in Israel reported last week about Rav Raful, “During the protests against autopsies, he was detained together with the famed rabbonim Rav Shabsi Yudelevich, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, and Rav Shlomo Lorintz, who were suspected of plotting to place an explosive device in the building.” However, the newspaper does not identify which building was targeted. Hamevaser wrote that they were suspected of intending to plant an explosive “in the government.” The deliberate vagueness is somewhat amusing.
A Correction at the Shiva Home
Allow me one last word about the shiva at Rav Eliyohu Raful’s home in Bnei Brak: While I was sitting with the mourners, a distinguished-looking man arrived and took a seat on the side of the room. Rav Ovadiah Yosef (the son of Rishon Letzion Rav Dovid Yosef) leaned over and whispered to me, “That is Rav Asher Chashuel, a talmid chochom from Brooklyn. He is a maggid shiur in Yeshivas Ateres Torah and a dayan on Rav Yosef Raful’s bais din.”
I quickly turned and greeted him, announcing to the assemblage that a distinguished marbitz Torah from New York had arrived.
Rav Chashuel hurried to silence me. “We do not say shalom in a house of mourning,” he chided me, “and your description is simply untrue.”
I was surprised to hear that it is prohibited to greet others in a shiva house; I had always known that it is prohibited to greet an avel, but I didn’t realize that the prohibition extends to other visitors as well. As a result, I decided to direct the question to Rav Yaakov Sinai, a grandson of Rav Ovadiah Yosef who is well-versed in all his grandfather’s halachic rulings.
Rav Sinai replied, “This stringent ruling comes from the Aruch Hashulchan, who maintains that it is prohibited to greet others in a house of mourning even after the burial. However, many Acharonim maintain that it is prohibited only before the burial. Rav Ovadiah writes that he personally witnessed elderly rabbonim who would meet in houses of mourning and greet each other with the word shalom, at least in private.”
Rav Sinai replied, “It is technically permitted, but it would be better to be inconspicuous about it. There is a bit of a contradiction in Rav Ovadiah’s writings about it, but as I mentioned, he attested that he witnessed rabbonim who were lenient about it. In short, there is a dispute about this.”
